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Women's underwear gets an upgrade

artinfactmag.com

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Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#71

Post by araneae »

teamhappy wrote: post #38

I googled for stats on tampons vs. pads and according to a paper some 3/4 of all women prefer tampons anyway, so I'm not sure they actually need a replacement for pads? I'm amazed that almost everybody using the word "gross" in this thread seems to be a women. I thought if anything men would be the problem. While searching for the paper I actually found a lot of women calling pads disgusting which I though is a littl…

>While searching for the paper I actually found a lot of women calling pads disgusting which I though is a little harsh. I hope they're talking about the feeling rather than the blood?

I think what these women are saying is, "I personally find wearing a pad disgusting" and not "Women who wear pads are disgusting." I definitely would call pads gross or disgusting, and when I say that, I mean that is my experience with wearing them in comparison to tampons.

With tampons, the blood doesn't make it to the vulva, in general. So the vulva stays a lot cleaner. If you wear pads, the blood flows out, so it dies and cakes on your pubic hair, labia, and anus. In addition, you can feel the blood once it exits, so there's a continual "gooey" feel, squelching when you sit down, etc. I honestly don't know why women who wear pads prefer it.

To be clear, I don't have any hygienic concerns with pads, nor with women who wear them. It's just that both the mess and the felling caused from wearing pads vs tampons I personally find gross.

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#72

Post by ljf »

hawkharris wrote: post #66

Speaking of antimicrobial underwear — it's not every day I get to use that segue — The New Yorker just had a fascinating piece about the world of extreme cave divers. Apparently, specially engineered underwear is one of the secrets to making it through the world's deepest cave: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/21/140421fa_fact_...

What an excellent article. Great Saturday morning in read with a coffee, thanks for the tip!

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#73

Post by fulafel »

teamhappy wrote: post #41
fulafel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you read tampons are more common? I found this which sounds like pads are used more: http://lipglossandabackpack.com/feminine-hygiene-around-the-...

Here's the paper: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8852185/Kohen.pdf... The first sentence is: "Tampons are used by up to 70 percent of menstruating women in the United States today, and the average woman may use as many as 16,800 tampons in her lifetime."

That's US only.

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#75

Post by Mz »

teamhappy wrote: post #54
Mz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI: Menstrual blood is not like, say, blood from a cut on your arm. It is clotty, nasty, disgusting stuff. Menstrual blood has been collecting in the uterus for some weeks, creating a lining on the walls intended to become a placenta should one get pregnant. And when a woman fails to get pregnant, the body decides to shed that lining. It's really not pleasant stuff to deal with. Plus, it is contaminated by mucus of…

"Not pleasant to deal with" is a lot better than "gross" :)

My first thought was "turns my stomach." I went with "gross" instead out of deference to the largely male audience whom I did not expect would understand my strong negative reaction. :-)

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#77

Post by laurynxo »

trhway wrote: post #6

would be interesting to hear a woman's opinion here. My understanding was that panties are usually bought on the merits of fit and, especially, quality of material. Is the built-in pad an improvement or gimmick?

There are a couple of companies on the market making leak resistant underwear now. Dear Kate is one of them and then Knix Wear is another. Seems to be a trend given there are a couple startups in the space. I agree though fit, quality of material and comfort have to come first.
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